# Before getting started

# Guide Structure

The following sections are ordered in increasing levels of "difficulty", where later sections demand more theoretical and practical background knowledge, some of which will either not be covered, or only very briefly. As sections become more "difficult", less and less detailed instructions will be provided in favor of guidelines and information to be aware of: the exercise will be left to the reader to try.

A ranking system using five stars will be used to represent difficulty. Later sections usually provide better results, and include other novel ways of using EQ, but are far from being necessary to have a more enjoyable and pleasing sounding IEM; they also require much more time and effort.
Below are optional but recommended requirements for each level.

( ): Very straight forward, no tweaking necessary
(*): Small tweaks and changes necessary
(**): Requires understanding and experience with EQ and one's preferences
(***): Complex, requires all the above, and additional tools/software
(****): Complex, requires all the above, listening training, and a good loudspeaker setup. Anything from here on out should be taken with a huge grain of salt
(*****): Too complex for the end user

The guide requires effort. Do not expect a simple recipe-like format that will yield an immediate and easy improvement to sound quality.

# Setting preamp

As mentioned previously, a preamp is required to avoid digital clipping. As a rule a thumb, the value should be the negative of the highest gain value of any filter. However, if multiple filters overlap, more negative preamp might be necessary. For more details, refer to the Equalizer basic section.